Selfish Desires In Everyman And The Bacchae By Euripides

Euripides’s plays often featured uncanny insight into the human condition and the struggle that his characters bore due to their expected roles within society.

In the myth of Dionysus there isn’t exactly a conflict between two sides of people battling for good or evil, its more as a battle between the two sides of Dionysus’ inner self. Unlike most examples of good versus evil, there isn’t a triumphant side. Just the personality switches between Dionysus being the joy-god or the heartless, savage, brutal-god. The reason for this change is due to the fact that he is the vine god; Wine is bad as well as good. He’d bring up peoples hopes and make them believe that they were capable of anything, but once they were sober again

Odysseus portrays himself as anything but a hero throughout Homer’s The Odyssey. Odysseus goes through his life believing he is the best. He has no regard for anyone’s feelings but his own, and he believes nothing and no one can harm him, not even the gods. Odysseus feels he is always the leader and no one can tell him otherwise. Odysseus should not be considered a hero because he portrays himself as a selfish man that failed his crew, and is controlled by his hubris.

Dionysus was a wanderer. During these journeys he explored the world. On these journeys he came across many different people and taught them how to keep their vines healthy. On one of his journeys he was captured by pirates. While he was in bondage of these pirates they tried to tie him down. Wherever the rope would touch him it would fall apart. In

Euripides’ play, The Bacchae, brings into perspective the Greek god, Dionysus. The play focuses on Dionysus wanting to establish his divinity in the city of Thebes, “Therefore I shall prove to him [Pentheus] and everyone in Thebes that I am god indeed” (47-49). As it can be seen here, Dionysus seeks to substantiate his divinity in the city that originally rejected him right from the get-go. He demonstrates this divinity through a very unique pathway, that pathway being vengeance. This course of vengeance leads him to manipulate various character's repressed desires. Dionysus uses these repressed desires in Thebes to enact his revenge on the city, but more specifically his own family. Albeit, repressed desires are not an actually character in The Bacchae, they arguably play one of the most important roles in the play. Dionysus brings out the repressed desires within Agave and Pentheus, and this ultimately shows their true character. He manipulates the two character’s repressed desires to fit his own agenda, which was mentioned earlier, and this is ultimately why he succeeds in his conquest for vengeance and the manifestation of his divinity to the city of Thebes. It also provides an explanation for why the two character’s behave the way that they do. It’s important to know your own desires so you cannot be easily manipulated and tricked like Agave and Pentheus were by Dionysus. If the two character’s would have known their own repressed desires, then arguably they would have

Odysseus, the main character of Homer’s The Odyssey, is not a hero. Because, although he may fight for the good at times, he displays more hypocritical, irrational, and selfish actions than he does heroic actions.

In Euripides’ the Bacchae, the city of Thebes is shown to have a system of political inheritance as Pentheus is given control over the city by his grandfather Cadmus, the founder of the city. The god Dionysus is also a grandson of Cadmus, yet is not chosen to be the heir to Thebes, which creates a rivalry between Dionysus and Pentheus. Pentheus does not allow Dionysus into the city of Thebes or give recognition to Dionysus at all. Dionysus and Pentheus both wish to establish their own political rule over the city of Thebes. Pentheus attempts to rule Thebes in an Apollonian fashion. The women brought to Thebes by Dionysus are put under arrest at the order of Pentheus, due to the drunken partying they were having due to Dionysus’ powers. The women’s party went against the social order enforced by the city of Thebes, and Dionysus

As Pentheus interrogates Dionysus he again is issued a direct warning not to go against the will of the gods by persecuting one whom the gods favor. As Dionysus calmly states, "Very well, I¹ll go along with this wrongful undestined destiny, but remember this: Dionysus, who you say does not exist, will wreak revenge on you for this" (Euripides 417). The story culminates in Dionysus playing on Pentheus¹ curiosity and voyeurism regarding the intoxicated hordes of Thebian women, by tricking him to go out to see them in action. Pentheus is brutally ripped apart by the possessed women, yet in effect it was his own actions that caused his destruction. As Dionysus directly addresses the hubris of Pentheus, "The sins of jealousy and anger made this Pentheus deal unjustly with one bringing blessings, whom he disgracefully imprisoned and insulted; and so he met his end at the hands of his own kin‹ an unnatural end and yet a just one" (Euripides 453).

She became queen of the underworld after being abducted by Hades. Dionysus, was a fertility god, and god of the vine. He freed the emotions and inspired joy in men. From him we get the tragic theater. He was also known as Baccus, god of drukenness.

Lust is defined as an intense longing or a sexual desire. It is a common theme in literature; particularly in classic Greek literature. The reason it is so prevalent in literature is that is prevalent in our daily lives. Everyone lusts after something or someone. It is an interesting topic to examine closely, and classic literature is an excellent medium for such an investigation. Two works I have studied, in which lust is a theme, are an epic, Homer's The Odyssey, and a play, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. In both The Odyssey and Lysistrata, lust is a theme that plays a major role in the course of the story, making the stories similar, but very different.

    In ancient Greece the females were considered to be conniving and deceiving whisperers, and men almost never trusted their wives.  The ideal woman was an obedient and placating wife.  They believed that the female should be strong but still yield to the power of the male in charge, whether it was older brother, father, or husband.  Euripides often used females in uncommon ways; he did not simply show them as complacent animals.  Women in Euripides' plays were used for social commentary.  They were not just simple characters; they could be both agathos and kakos.  The females in the works of Euripides were extremely strong and devious and they were loyal but at the same time

Dionysus is the god of wine and fertility, however also became considered a patron of the arts. Along with the variety of things Dionysus was associated with, he is associated with some important concepts. These are, being able to bring a dead person back from the underworld, rebirth after death represented through the symbol of his tending to vines to bear fruit for the making of his wine. There is also the feeling of being possessed by a greater power – which he demonstrated via the influence had from wine. This means that the greater power is the wine – that at these times a man might be greater than himself and do works he otherwise could not.

When Teiresias asks in Antigone (line 1051), "What prize outweighs the priceless worth of prudence?" he strikes (as usual) to the heart of the matter in Sophocles' Theban Plays. Sophocles dramatizes the struggle between fate and free will, in one sense, but in another sense the drama might be better understood as the struggle between the will of the goods (which it is prudent to follow, according to Teiresias) and man's will (which is often imprudent). Sophocles' characters are moved by their own wills, of course (either in accordance or in conflict with the will of the gods). Oedipus in Oedipus the King is determined to pursue the truth in spite of the objections of Jocasta, the priest, and his own misgivings. In Oedipus at Colonus, Theseus "cannot rest" (line 1773) until he has served both Antigone and the late Oedipus (implying that conscience is his motivator awareness, in other words, of his duty towards them). In Antigone, Antigone acts in accordance to the will of the gods (but in disobedience to the will of Creon) and does so knowing the punishment that awaits her: "Go I, his prisoner, because I honored those things to which honor truly belongs" (lines 178-9). This paper will show how while fate is a powerful force in The Theban Plays, the characters themselves are still left to exercise their own free will (either with respect or disrespect to will of the gods). Thus, the main drama consists not in the

Dionysus is an important figure of Greek mythology. He is the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, festivity and pleasure. He represents humanity’s longing for pleasure and desire to celebrate. Dionysus is also the god of hallucination, theatre, reincarnation and homosexuality. He is called: “the youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus (Bakchos), that is, the noisy or riotous god…” (Roman 201).

A set of connected behaviors, right obligations and more was introduced in both plays, Oedipus the King and Lysistrata. Theatre was a wonderful tool for social engagement. Throughout each play they both contained comedy and tragedy. However, King Oedipus is having trouble with his fate and making bad decisions as a leader for his community. Lysistrata wants to end the war and this causes for her to make decisions involving the community and their support as a democracy. Both plays are trying to set good examples among their community and lead their country with a better democracy.